Jummah Khutbah - Modesty

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Modesty (Haya)

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O people, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created from it its wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, with whom you ask for help and mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

The Purpose of the Prophet's Mission

Brothers and sisters, Rasulullah ﷺ once described his mission in a very succinct, short phrase. When he said that he was only sent for one purpose. I was only sent to this world as a messenger by Allah, to fulfill one goal, to achieve one purpose — and that is to perfect the most beautiful form of human character.

And he ﷺ did that. He perfected human character by doing two things. By first, exemplifying beautiful character in his own behavior — the way that he interacted, the way that he carried himself. He did that ﷺ to such an extent that Allah himself testified to the beauty of his character, when He said in the Qur'an:

That you, O Muhammad ﷺ, for sure, without a doubt, are upon the most exalted form of character.

But he also did that ﷺ — in addition to exemplifying it in his own behavior — by way of instruction, by way of preaching to his companions, by way of teaching them through his words, through instruction ﷺ.

What Is Haya?

And one of the forms of beautiful character, part of beautiful character, as he instructed ﷺ, is haya. Haya is an Arabic word that is often translated as modesty, or shyness, or bashfulness, or shame. We may not have an exact word in the English language that conveys the meaning of haya. But we all know what it is.

Haya, brothers and sisters, is the essence of our religion. As Rasulullah ﷺ said, that every deen, every way of life, every religion has a hallmark — has an essential distinguishing quality — and the hallmark of Islam is haya. The hallmark of the deen of Islam is haya.

When we hear this hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ, brothers and sisters, we have to look inside of us and ask ourselves: where is haya in my life? Where is haya in our lives?

Haya and Iman Are Inseparable

Rasulullah ﷺ also said that haya is part of iman, part of faith, and iman takes you to jannah. Whereas al-batha' — shamelessness — is of wickedness, and wickedness takes you to the hellfire. So in this hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ combines between haya and iman. And in the previous hadith, he combined between haya and Islam.

And therefore, brothers and sisters, if we call ourselves Muslim, if we call ourselves believers — if we are Muslim homemakers, engineers, doctors, physicians; if we call ourselves Muslims who are actively working for the cause of Islam; if we call ourselves Muslim activists, Muslim writers, Muslim educators — then the extent of our Islam and our belief is proportional to the extent of haya inside of us and outside of us.

Rasulullah ﷺ said that iman is seventy-some branches — there are seventy-some branches of faith, of iman:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 9; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 57)

He said that haya is a branch of iman, is a branch of faith.

Brothers and sisters, if we are working to spread the deen of Allah on this earth, if we are working to defend Islam and Muslims on this earth, if we are working to propagate the beautiful Islamic values on this earth, if we are trying to normalize Islam in our lands — it cannot come at the expense of what is the essence of Islam. It cannot come at the expense of modesty itself. If I am an Islamic worker, a Muslim activist, my activism cannot come at the expense of that which is the essence of what I'm trying to defend. If that happens, then that's a sign that I am simply a worker, but I lack faith inside of me — that I pretend to be working for the cause of a faith, yet I don't have it in my own self.

Rasulullah ﷺ said that haya and faith are inseparable:

(Al-Hakim, Al-Mustadrak, Hadith 52; also reported by al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman)

That haya and faith are inseparable. If one is absent, the other must also be absent. That's what he said ﷺ. You either have both or you don't have either — they come together, they're a package deal.

And therefore, if we, in our activism, are negligent of haya — in the way that we speak, in the way that we conduct ourselves, in the way that we dress, in the way that we interact with the opposite sex, in the way that we carry ourselves, in the way that we sit, in the way that we stand, in the way that we walk, in the way that we talk, in the way that we write, in the way that we give interviews — if in all of this haya is missing, then faith is missing. And we can claim whatever we claim — to be defenders, proponents, and speakers on behalf of Islam. But iman is deficient inside. And that's why sometimes there is no fruit in our da'wah work, because it's hollow. It's just a shell. And we're calling people to something that we ourselves don't have.

Haya Is Entirely Good

Sometimes, brothers and sisters, when we talk about haya, some of us object and say: too much haya is not good. We can't have haya in the public sphere. That's negative. That prevents us from achieving our goals. Well, the Prophet ﷺ said this:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 60)

That haya is good — all of it. He also said ﷺ:

That haya only brings that which is good. Haya doesn't bring anything except good. We may perceive it to be negative. We may perceive it to be evil. We may perceive it to be a hindrance, an obstacle. But haya only brings that which is good, and beneficial, and khair.

Once Rasulullah ﷺ passed by a man from the Ansar, who was rebuking another Muslim brother of his — chastising him, because in his view that other Muslim brother was acting with too much haya. And so the Prophet ﷺ said to him:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 24; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 57)

He told that Ansari man: leave him be, because haya is part of faith, it is part of iman.

Haya as a Restraining System

You know why, brothers and sisters, haya is so important? Because it regulates our behavior. It is a restraining system. It puts my behavior in check and ensures that I behave and act in a way that is beautiful, that is graceful — not in a way that is belligerent, and reckless, and harmful, and ugly.

Rasulullah ﷺ said that at his time, there was a saying that was very famous, and he approved of this saying. And he said that this is actually a saying that people have inherited from earlier prophets:

That if you don't feel haya, then do whatever you want. If we don't have haya, if we don't feel haya, then we say whatever we want — we say it the way we want, we do whatever we want, we do it the way we want. Haya puts all of that in check, and makes sure that what comes out of our mouths and what is expressed from our bodies is full of grace and beauty.

Haya — An Attribute of Allah and the Angels

Haya, brothers and sisters, is beautiful. And it is so beautiful, brothers and sisters, that it is an attribute of Allah. Allah is described with haya. Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4012; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 406)

That Allah is full of haya. And He is full of concealment — He covers, He conceals. And He loves covering and concealing, and He loves haya.

Haya is so beautiful, brothers and sisters, that it is a quality of the angels. The angels are creatures of Allah that conduct themselves with haya. Rasulullah ﷺ would cover his body more than usual when some of his companions would come to visit him, and he would say:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 44, Hadith 25 — regarding 'Uthman ibn 'Affan)

That shouldn't I feel haya in the presence of a man in whose presence the angels feel haya? The angels feel haya. They conduct themselves with haya. That's how beautiful this quality is — it is a quality of the angels.

Haya — A Quality of All the Prophets

It is a quality of prophets of Allah. Rasulullah ﷺ said that there are four qualities that are part of the sunnah of all the messengers of God, and among them he said is haya.

Rasulullah ﷺ himself was described as someone who had a lot of haya. He was described in a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim:

That he ﷺ had more haya than al-'adhra'u fi khidriha. You know, in those days, there were women who — if they were not married, if they were single, if they had never married before — they would have their own special living quarters where they would reside, and they would not mix with other people. They would not even mix with married women, so they don't learn bad habits from them. And these women — these 'adhra', these young, single women who had never married before — were considered to be the icons of haya in that society, the paragons of haya. Rasulullah ﷺ was described as having more haya than those women. And he is a man ﷺ. And that teaches us that haya is in men as well as in women. As men, we should strive to act with haya and to live with haya. Haya is beautiful in a man and it is beautiful in a woman. And yes, it is even more beautiful in a woman.

Haya in the Qur'an — The Story of Musa and the Daughter of Shu'ayb

Allah talks about a woman with haya in the Qur'an. The wife of Sayyiduna Musa ﷺ, before she became his wife — after Sayyiduna Musa helped the two sisters get water, they went home. And then one of those sisters came back — came back walking alone to speak to Sayyiduna Musa ﷺ. She came alone to talk to him because she doesn't have a man in her home. She only has an old father who cannot go out by himself. So she's coming with a message from her father.

She comes with this message and she's going to talk now to this young handsome man — a man who is beautiful inside and beautiful outside. And she's a young beautiful woman. And Allah describes the way that she comes and approaches Musa ﷺ:

SubhanAllah, that one of those two sisters came walking full of haya. And she said: my father is calling you because he wants to reward you for the water that you provided for us.

And then when they go back, this lady converses with her father and suggests to him to hire Sayyiduna Musa ﷺ. And she begins to praise him. And her father realizes that she is attracted to him. And so he marries her to him. The way that she talks to her father about Sayyiduna Musa ﷺ is so full of haya. She doesn't say, "Father, I love him, I want to marry him" — none of that. Full of modesty, full of haya.

And Sayyiduna Musa ﷺ also — the way that he behaves with this woman — is also so beautiful, so full of haya. Because when the woman comes, as Sayyiduna 'Umar ibn al-Khattab has narrated, that when this woman came, Musa ﷺ told her: please walk behind me, and describe to me the way. Lead me to your home, but please walk behind me. Because he said:

(Reported by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab — see Tafsir Ibn Kathir, commentary on Surah al-Qasas 28:25)

Because we are not a people who look at the backsides of women. Haya is beautiful in a man, and it is also beautiful in a woman, brothers and sisters.

May Allah endow us all with this beautiful hallmark of our deen.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ فَيَا فَوْزَ الْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ

Second Khutbah — Haya Is More Than a Headscarf

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَأَفْضَلُ الصَّلَاةِ وَأَتَمُّ التَّسْلِيمِ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Brothers and sisters, modesty is more than just a headscarf. Haya is more than just putting a headscarf on one's head. A headscarf is required for modesty for women in our deen — but that's not where it ends. Modesty is not just in the headscarf. Modesty is beyond that. And it's not just in a woman — it's also in a man. Modesty is a sign of faith in a man and a woman, and it is exhibited in the way that one feels inside, and the way in which one dresses, yes, and the way that one carries oneself, the way that one talks and walks and interacts with people of the same sex and people of the opposite sex.

The Haya of Sayyida Fatima — Even in Death

The daughter of Rasulullah ﷺ, Sayyida Fatima, once had a conversation with Asma' bint 'Umays — the wife of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. And Sayyida Fatima said to her — and just for the sake of time I'll mention only the English — she said: I don't like the way that the janazah of a woman is carried by our people.

So Asma' said: what do you not like? And Fatima said: you know, the body of a woman is placed on a bier — a stretcher basically, with no coffin covering it — and it's just covered with five sheets of cloth. That's it, no other covering, no coffin, nothing. Just lays bare with five sheets of cloth covering it from head to toe. And Sayyida Fatima said: I don't like that. It shows the shape of the woman. I don't like that. SubhanAllah — that's a dead body. But look at her haya.

So Asma', the wife of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr, said: you know what, when I was in Habasha, when I was in Abyssinia, I saw a practice there — that when they would carry funerals, they would erect four sticks at the corners of the stretchers, and they would cover that up with a piece of cloth. So Sayyida Fatima said: please, when I die, you do that for me. And make sure that nobody washes me except you and my husband Ali. That's it — do not even allow the mothers of the believers, nobody, to enter upon me when I'm in that state.

And then when she died, her wasiyya was carried out. And Sayyida 'A'isha, when she saw the janazah going with this tent that the people were carrying on their shoulders, she said to her father: ya abati, what is this? People are carrying like a tent — what kind of janazah is this? And Sayyiduna Abu Bakr asked his wife: why was this done? And Asma' said: this was the wasiyya of Sayyida Fatima. And so Sayyiduna Abu Bakr said: then it must be followed. This is the leader of the women of paradise.

This is the reason why, brothers and sisters. Look at the level of haya — that even as a dead body, she does not want even her body, already covered in five sheets of cloth, to be exposed.

The Haya of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq — Even in Seclusion

But like I said, brothers and sisters, haya is not just in women — it is also in men. When Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq was giving a khutbah to the people — and I'll close with this insha'Allah — he said to them: ya ma'shar al-muslimin, istahyu minallah. He reminded them to have haya from Allah. And then he gave an example of that, just a daily mundane example.

And he said: fa walladhi nafsi biyadi — I swear by the One in whose hands is my soul — even when I go to relieve myself. In those days they didn't have lavatories and designated bathrooms, as you know. They didn't have the resources to be able to do that. They had to go and do that in nature, away from people. He said: when I do that, I go far away, to a place where even my shadow cannot be seen. And then I cover myself up with an extra sheet when I do that. Why does he cover himself with an extra sheet where nobody can see him? Haya before Allah. Even feeling haya before Allah.

Du'a

May Allah endow us with this beautiful quality of haya. May Allah endow us with haya before Him and before His creation. May Allah help us follow the example of Rasulullah ﷺ — the one who exemplified the most exalted form of beautiful character. May Allah help us acquire all the beautiful qualities that Rasulullah ﷺ came with.

قُومُوا إِلَى صَلَاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمْكُمُ اللهُ